


Encryption

by TheSphinxDen



Category: Tron: Uprising
Genre: F/M, Implied Relationships, Implied Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-06
Updated: 2015-09-06
Packaged: 2018-04-19 10:02:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4742168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSphinxDen/pseuds/TheSphinxDen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tesler and Gorn have a conversation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Encryption

“Let’s talk about something different.”

Gorn’s suggestion didn’t surprise him. Tesler cast her a sidelong glance, his eyes flickering tiredly in the dimly glowing light of her inner chamber. He had been enjoying a glass of energy while chattering on about his new plans to capture the Renegade. Most of his figure took up space in Gorn’s relatively small recharge pod, so the short program had to squeeze against the opposite wall. His circuits were just beginning to fade back to their default red and teal from a harsh pink, while hers were already white again.

“You speak too much of the Renegade.”

“You would do well to actually _listen_ to it for once. Considering you’re supposed to be helping.”

His words cut deep like a sharp blade. Since Gorn’s reassignment to an Occupation disc-modifier, all of her actions had been deemed legal under the supervision of Tesler. Growing close to the general had been out of a pure accident, and now she wondered if it would be her downfall.

She glared over her shoulder, her loose hair hiding most of her expression.

“If I could throw you out of my shop I would. How crude of you to speak nothing but politics after we spend precious, rare time together.” she made a disgusted sound with her lips. Tesler’s silence frightened her. She could hear how his breathing shifted to reflect a deep contemplation. Luckily for her, she sensed no anger...yet.

She could say no more, and did not possess the authority to make him leave. Even in her personal space, he ruled over her. And frankly, she was getting tired of it.

“I understand your frustration.”

Tesler’s voice was a deep and gentle hum. “But know capturing the Renegade is something that I can’t get out of my mind.”

Yet another tense silence lingered between them, and Gorn was becoming quite weary of its presence. She knew, deep down, that she may play as nothing more than as asset to him. A tool to carry out his demands. A broken criminal reassigned to an even more terrible existence. She pondered inwardly if the affection she felt for him in return was truly genuine, or if using each other had become a sick, habitual method between them. She hated the thought, but considered its possibilities.

Once she felt the familiar dampness of his lips on her shoulder, the fear subsided within her. She knew what that was. A gentle, silent apology.

“Perhaps it is no longer appropriate to bring that up in this place.” He sighed against her, his breath hot.

“Yes. It is no longer appropriate, general.”

“What do you want to discuss, then? I find your topics long winded and boring. Most of the time I don’t even understand what you’re saying.” he growled. So much for that apology.

“If you believe I’m no longer useful to you in that regard, you may as well just dispose of me.” Gorn said, silently insulted by his verbal cruelty.

“If you think I can just derezz you, why do you want to sleep with me?”

“Did I have much of a choice?”

Tesler’s silence was long and dense. Filled with something she thought he wasn’t capable of feeling. Hurt.

“I’ve always given you a choice.”

When Gorn didn’t respond, his hand was cupping her shoulder and applying a bit of force to turn her around.

“Don’t tell me I haven’t given you a choice. I asked you. I thought you recieved it in a similar light.”

Tesler recalled the first time he had brought up intimacy, and he was kneeling slightly before the program with her gloved hand pressed to his lips. He had been nothing but respectful, if not weary, to her. Knowing full well that rejection was the likely choice, he had been surprised and admittedly a bit delighted when she said yes. She never displayed signs of resistance that would have alarmed Tesler to stop, nor spoke negatively about their time spent together. He had assumed her silence was more of a compliment, being a program with a similar reclusive nature close to his own. Perhaps he was wrong.

Gorn shrugged away his massive hand and continued to stay turned away from him.

“I can’t do this for much longer.” she sighed, her voice shivering. It was an unusual break in her personality. She was not a program to display weakness, even out of anger. She was composed and beyond ice cold, but whenever she was with him her code fragmented. It was an emotion beyond her power to control.

She felt Tesler’s body shift in response, unsure if it was built from surprise or fury. Luckily for her, it was neither and the general simply gave a sigh that was in considerable agreement to her concern.

“I know.” he said simply, his dark voice rumbling once more through her body. “Do you want me to give you time to think?”

Gorn wasn’t sure what she needed. The world around them would never accept them as they were, despite two compatible natures and a deep longing for the other. She felt that in her core, in the tiniest scripts of her code. If things were different, if the world was better, safer, then perhaps they could have been. The golden jaws of Clu had them both clamped tight, and its pressure was eating them both alive. They were tools in this terrible machine, gears forced into unsuitable spaces.  It wasn’t fair. It was beyond hope, or reason to believe that anything could change it. And for this very reason, the small program felt a heavy, churning sorrow.

“Yes.” she said simply, finally glancing back over her shoulder to him. “I need time.”

“Very well.” Tesler was a program of his word, and gently he excused himself from her linens. He towered over most objects in her chamber, and even in the small moment he was still nude his body boasted nothing but pure, unfiltered power. Soon enough, his suit reformed in a dance of liquid black and red. The disc modifier remained curled under her thin sheets, as if she had been silently trying to create a cocoon for herself. If it was to shield her from Tesler’s gaze or the rest of the world, she was still uncertain. Carefully, he looked at her and seemed to consider his next sentence with heavy thought.

“I don’t know when I’ll return. If I return at all.”

Gorn nodded. She didn’t need to say anything. His work could have him killed at any moment. If not by the Renegade or their supporters, then certainly by the iron maw of Clu.

“I hope our time spent together has been enjoyable, at least. You know as well as I that I’m not partial to disappointing you.” He smiled, and Gorn managed to leer at him and give one final, amused chuckle. “Goodbye, program. I hope you inform me of your decision whenever you’re ready.”

As he turned to leave, his cape rolled like a black wave, his features lit only by the dim red of his own lines and the surrounding decorations of his lover’s chamber.

“General…”

The call had been unexpected. Tesler stopped before his exit, turning slowly. Gorn was sitting up in her recharge pod, grasping the cream colored sheets so they clung around her chest. Her face betrayed all of her previous encrypted coldness, and spoke of nothing but heart break. If programs could cry as Users could, her elegant face would be soaked with the tears of loss.

“I know it may be a fool’s desire, and I know you as a program. But...I just want to ask something of you before you leave me.”

Tesler’s thick eyebrows arched, a sign of his willingness to listen. Their connection was strong enough for him to decode what she was thinking, and before she had to say it he was crouching down before her with her hand to his lips. “I know what you want.” he smiled gently, and gave it to her. It was a soft kiss to her mouth, prolonged by her agonized want of him. When he stepped away, she knew true sorrow and watched him disappear through the exit port.  The silence that remained was defeating, and her recharge pod felt grimly empty. She simply laid back and slept, lit only by the gentle mutli-colored light of Tesler’s many gifts he had given her over their many cycles of forbidden interaction. She felt as if she could sleep forever, and await his return or fade away into the cold, hateful world, piece by piece, voxel by voxel. If this was indeed what was to come, then she would find solace in that heavy darkness, and seek loneliness as a comfort in this terrible world.


End file.
